New Academic Journal Promotes CUNY SPS’ Groundbreaking Disability Studies Scholarship
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Academic Journal Promotes CUNY SPS’ Groundbreaking Disability Studies Scholarship In Fall 2019, CUNY SPS welcomed the publication of Journal of Teaching Disability Studies (JTDS), a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to promote and explore disability studies pedagogy. With its publication, the JTDS joins a growing list of peer-reviewed journals in the discipline, and has the distinction of being the first to be launched primarily through the efforts of the CUNY SPS faculty. Developed by the CUNY SPS disabilities studies program, and edited by its academic director Dr. Mariette Bates, in collaboration with colleagues at the City University of New York and other schools, the journal invites discussion of teaching disability studies topics in a broad range of educational settings and explores how the principles of universal design support student learning.
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“Disability studies programs have been growing steadily over the last several decades, with certificates and degrees being developed each year. The Journal of Teaching Disability Studies was created to encourage community among those of us engaged in teaching about disability, and to enhance pedagogy in the field of disability studies,” said Dr. Bates. “It is my hope that this journal will help all of us identify and explore pedagogy that prioritizes the experience of people with disabilities of all ages, uses the social model as grounding philosophy, and incorporates principles of universal design in assignment, and course development and delivery.” According to its mission statement, JTDS seeks to encourage teachers at all levels to reflect on, revise, and share original research on how disability studies fits into
CUNY School of Professional Studies Magazine | 2019-2020
the classroom, on syllabi, and in public educational programming, and how utilizing principles of universal design supports student learning. The journal’s inaugural edition opens with an introductory essay by Dr. Bates, in which she recounts the creation of the CUNY SPS disability studies program, which offers the first bachelor’s degree of its kind and the first stand-alone master’s degree in the field. Understanding the history of this groundbreaking program, she explained, might help inspire others to develop similar ones elsewhere. The issue also features five submissions reviewed by leading experts in disability studies from CUNY and other colleges and universities nationwide. “[There are] articles on a wide range of topics, from examining universal design strategies in
